Current Statistics:

Platform - 1985 Toyota 4runner Body and Frame

Engine - 1989 Ford Mustang EFI 5.0 (302)

Transmission - Borg Warner WC T-5 (5 Speed)

Tires - 35x12.50x15 BF Goodrich Mud Terrains

Wheels - American Racing 10x15 Black Nuggets

Front Axle - Toyota 8" 4.88 and Detroit Locker

Bumpers - Smittybilt Double Tube front, Home made nerfbars and rear bumper

Lift - Northwest off-road 3 1/2 inch springs and 1 1/2 front & rear shackles

Currently-

Im finally posting technical pictures because ive been getting alot of e-mails from people asking how to do it, and it takes along time to e-mail pictures. Technical Pictures

6-15-03 Well crap, I was up loading the index.html for the mustang page i was putting up but unfortuntly copied over the 4runners index.html. So im back where i started. I dont have Much of it right now but check it out.

Like i said before i ruined my website, I rebuilt the 4runner's transmission but it still makes noise. I removed the dualfriction clutch because i was wondering if it was the weights that were making the noise, but it wasnt. I believe its just worn out. Im currently looking for a new t-5. For now i wrapped carpet foam around the overdrive housing to make it bearable.

8-20-03 Wow what a difference. Last weekend i went paintballing at SC village and took the 4runner. Its a hours drive from my house and the 4runner has never really shined on the freeway. Most the time it a really rough ride and it vibrates really bad at speed above 65mph. When i drove down there, it just flew. I was doing 80mph reving 2900rpm and the truck still felt stable and smooth. I Think i have to thank the grease on the springs for that. couple weeks ago i had my truck on the rack at work and i figured i might just as well grease up the spring sliders. Im glad i did because it really helped the ride.

The other day I Flushed the cooling system because it was a little thin on Antifreeze. I washed, buffed and waxed it a few days ago. At the same time i cleaned the engine compartment and dressed all the hoses. It looks really nice now.

I Uploaded a bunch of recent offroading pictures from Johnson Valley and Los Coyotes. click on the links below

10/6/03-On september 1st I tried to get the mud smell out of my truck so on my 3 day weekend i decided to rip apart my interior and clean the whole thing. I removed the rug, carpet foam, & insulation and began scrubbing the area with soap. Then for some reason i decided i was going to seal up my air box alittle better. so i took out my glove box and removed the air box. After that i looked at my ecu and figured it was too low. So i mounted it alittle higher, but it always slid down. Then i took alook at my air box and found it was cracked and broken in a few places. So i pulled the whole dash and guages to get to the air box. the next day i had it all torn apart. Afew days before i saw a 2wd toyota at the junkyard with and intact A/C system with fan and everything. So I tried to bang back the fire wall as far as possible to get the A/C Evaporator to fit but no dice. I ended up sealing up the new box with the old non-A/C duct. I cleaned up the dash and mounted the ECU with foam and a huge hose clamp i cut and bolted the the firewall. Then i threw everything together and fixed all the wires together. I think it looks alot better than what it did. Interior Pics

The other day I was playing around with my clutch pedel and decided to change the throw and pressure on it. I moved the master cylinder rod to the lowest position on the clutch pedel and this gave me a really firm pedel with 1/2 the throw. It was great until you had to use it. I had someone push the pedel while i watched the firewall and noticed that the firewall was flexing and broke the body seam between the inner wheel well and the firewall. So i went down to the clutch and moved the slave cylinder rod out the original outer hole. That was nice because it gave a really smooth pedel that didnt kill your leg while at lights. Unfortunately, it wasnt releasing 100% of the way and was a dog to put in 1st gear. So then i had an epiphany. Why not have a variable clutch fork? And thats what i did. Using a die grinder, i made one long oval in the outer clutch fork. Then I put a piece of 1/4" sheet metal over it and drilled two holes. One for the slave cylinder rod and the other for the lock down bolt. Now i can move the 1/4" plate closer or farther away from the throw-out bearing. This increases or deceases force and throw just my moving the plate. After finding a position to test, i lock down the 3/8" bolt and nut and see if it going to work.CLUTCH FORK

11-19-03 While driving down the street i noticed a loud vibration coming from the driveline. at first i thought it was the engine missing so i checked everthing and it was running alright. Then i thought it was my rear diff so i pulled the drive shaft and checked the pinion nut, i tightened it about 1/4 of a turn but that wouldnt cause the problem. Next I checked the Output flange nut but it was tight. Then i started to look at the u-joint and noticed one of the Dust shields was deformed. To make a long story short, the bearings in the cap wore out and created the noise and vibration. So i replace both of them and it cured the problem. I've only driven it once on the freeway since the replacement but the new u-joints seems to have cured my noisy transmission problem. It still rattles but the crunching noise between drive and coast has been reduced by about 90%. I dont exactly know why, but i have an idea.

11-30-03 Apparently im a professional toyota engine converter. Well, not really but i did drive 100 miles to Frasier Park to wire up a pick-up. The owner e-mailed me asking for help, stating that the mechanical things are ok, but the electrical part was over his head. After setting up relays and B+ wires, i hooked up the ECU and tried to fire it up. Unfortunately, the coil and injecters were not firing so i hooked the his ECU into my wiring harness and my car wouldnt start. So, obviously it was a bad ECU. I called it a day and drove home and 3 days later he bought another ECU and hooked it up. He tried starting it the same day but the engine still wouldn't start up, so he called me asking for another visit. 2 weeks later i was up there again with my tools and a test connector that was lossed during the removal from the original mustang. 3 hours later we traced all the wires from the test connector and had it in place. Apparently ford switched wire colors from year to year! The injector wire was also cut from the loop so that was router to the ignition also. I pulled about 8 codes from the computer from 02 sensors to fuel pump circuits. I cranked it over again but it refused to fire. about the time the pizza guy showed up so we went inside for lunch and i asked if he had the fuel lines routed right. Turns out he didn't and the fuel pressure was hitting the regulator 1st instead of last. After quickly switching the lines, i cranked it over and it fired up on 7 cylinders because we forgot to reinstall the #1 sparkplug. After the spark plug issue was resolves we cranked it over again and it started up running on all 8. it was short lived because the P/S wasnt hooked up yet. After routing some hoses, we cranked it over again and topped off all the fluids and checked for leaks. I hooked up his alternator and hit the road back home.

1-11-04 Its been awhile but i did it again. I hit 100mph in the 4runner. It was about 9:00am coming home on the freeway after the swap meet. The traffic was light and conditions were right so i figured "why not?". Dropping down from 5th to 4th gear, i hit the accelerator and before i knew it the speedometer was inching it way towards 80mph. the driveline vibrations were still light so i kept it floored. At 90mph the steering felt squarrly and i diconnected. I was watching the road looking for potholes because if i hit one i would have been another lane before i could do anything. I also thought about the 35" tires spinning at nearly 1000rpm. If one of those things disintergrated, i would have been on my lid. acouple more seconds and the needle hit 100mph with the tach reading 5000 Rpm. According to calculations, my 35" tires were spinning at 1024 Rpm. I released the gas and the truck weaved to the side due to my crappy geometry. WHAT A RUSH.

1-19-04 The other morning i walked out to the 5.0 runner and the back window wouldnt roll down. I opened the door and the dome light was bearly on. I popped the hood and the alternator was warm. Probably a bad diode in the regulator. Ive already replaced that regulator about 4 times and chose to upgrade. 94-95 mustangs are equipted with 130 amp alternator that slip into my brackets with minor modifications. the alternator was $150 and about 3 hours later i doubled my alternator capacity. I tested it out and it works but alittle high at 14.9V. Im almost ready for that winch now.

1-20-04 Remember that driveshaft vibration i was complaining about. I finally eliminated it. I simply unbolted it from the diff, pulled out the splines and cocked it 180*. I test drove it at 85mph and the vibrations were gone. Also, while i was down there, i ovaled out the holes holding the clutch slave cylinder bracket to the bellhousing. Now i have a way to adjust the geometry of the pushrod.

1/20/04 Some time in the near future, probably in a few months, i will be installing the factory cruise control in the 4runner. It wont be easy but look what ive done already. I've already mapped out the schematics in the book and figured out how the amplifier is hooked up. I will create a nifty aluminum panel with 5 shiny buttons for the controls and mount it to the dash. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

1-21-04 Well, things are ahead of schedule for my cruise control project. I have everything i need except the Vehicle speed sensor and the switches. I have a write up about at this page Cruise control Retrofit

1-28-04 Holy crap-hell. What a pain in the ass. I finally got the cruise control working but not without alot of head-scratching and long nights. Fords safety system on the cruise control wasted 3 days of my life. Check out my cruise control on the above link.

1-31-04 I was again summoned for my electrical expertise. A guy in Pasadena asked me to drive up and fix his 4runner. Unfortunitly for him, the negative terminal to the block fell off and when he tried to start up his car, 200 amps of battery current found its way to the negative side of the battery through a single 10 gauge wire. The bad part is this wire is in the main wiring loom that goes across the dash. So When that wire fried, it melted the insulation off of a bunch of wires next to it. It was a disaster. He originaly wanted to install a "Painless" wiring kit in it, but it was missing all the EFI and ignition wires. so we decided to repair the orginal wiring as best as possible. 7 1/2 hours later, we had the loom repaired and back in the car. We still needed some more 10 guage wire and it was 9:30pm, so i told him what to do , called it a day and returned back home.

2-1-04 I've always wanted a winch on the front of my bumper. But the down falls of the weight, approach angle, electical draw, and especially price always kept me away from one. But the other day i was looking on recycler.com and found a Ramsey 6000 Lbs winch. The price was right at $175 bucks so i went down to take a look at it. It was in good condition except for the paint and to my surprise it was really light. I checked to make sure it worked before i bought it. I bought it and brought it home to do a better inspection of it. It has the words "Ramsey" on the cover plate and the capacity on a sticker, but when i tried to look it up on Ramsey.com, i couldnt find it. It has a really small motor, probably only about 2HP. But i weighted it at 53lbs and it only draws 40 amps unloaded. I disassembled it and cleaned the planetary gears and case. Then i took all the external parts down to the bear metal and painter it black again.

3-27-04 Well, thats differential number 3 that I've blown up. My friend and I were heading to Corona to do some paintballing when i lost power and heard a hissing noise. I pulled over on the freeway and just did a quick check of parts when i saw a ring gear bolt poking out of the rear diff cover. To make a long story short, I pulled off the freeway and found a Pepboys. After getting acouple parts and gear oil we began tearing down the rear diff. After we got the bolts all tightened back up with locktite, we tried driving it on the rear axle and found the noise and vibration unbearable. We pulled over on the side of the freeway and took of the rear driveshaft and drove home in front wheel drive. If you've never driven a locked-up truck on the freeway in front wheel drive your missing alot. It took me a week to track down all the part at a reasonable price.

3-29-04 In my quest to get more power and increase fuel economy, I've installed a few new items to my engine. The 1st thing in installed was the cold air kit. Obviously, it didnt cost much, probably $15. I made it out of 6" flexible drier duct, but with dense, cold air, i should get a few more ponies out of it. A theory is you get 1% of horse power for every 10 degrees you drop. So if i lowered the intake temp by 60 degrees, theoreticly, i just added 15 horses.
Number two is the rocker arms. Ive always wanted rockers. Not only do they free up power from friction, they should increase fuel economy and lower the oil temperature. I bought them uses but in the deal i also got the shims, Chrome valve covers and pushrods for a 351W. I wont need the pushrods any time soon, but it came in the bag for $90.

4-6-04 Just for referance, the rocker arms and cold air intake didnt make a bit of difference in my gas mileage. I just made a 120 mile trip and recorded only 16.0 MPG. It may be the new Ring & Pinion breaking in, but I'll keep an eye on my gas guage looking for any increase. I did notice an reduction in drive train noise. While i had the engine apart, I painted the upper intake manifold. The yellowing epoxy paint was rather an eye sore, so i found some "ford engine blue" an gave it a good coat.

4-26-04 Just got back from the 4runner Jamboree. I have to say, I finally finished a trail. I signed up for Aftershock, which is suppose to be a do-able without a front locker, but the weather shifted the rocks around on the last sections. It was very tricky, and alot of people turned around, which is a shame, because they were 9/10th of the way done. But even the Venerable 5.0 runner had trouble clearing the double wammy bump on top. All in all thou, it was alot of fun. Check Out the Pics

8-10-04 I just got back from "Hot August Nights" in Reno, Nevada and I had a blast. Most of the cars down there were so clean they looked like they just came off the car lot. I drove the 4runner 1,000 miles up to sacramento to catch a ride to HAN, than to San Jose to see the original owner of the 5.0 runner, then back home. Most of the time i was doing 67 mph and getting 16.5mpg but i once fueled up with 89 octane and got 18mpg. At HAN, I went to the Summit Performance werehouse and they were having a 10% off sale on everything. I picked up a HI-flow thermostat, Hi-volume oil pump, 1 piece oil pan gasket, and heavy duty oil pump driveshaft. When i installed it, it raised my oil pressure up 23psi. I was impressed.

7-16-05 Shame on me. I've lost my enthusiasm to update my website. Its not like I havent been doing anything with my runner, I just dont have the gumption to write about it. Let me try to fill some of the history in. During February, we had a really hard rain season. If i remember correctly, it was the 3rd rainest season ever recorded in So Cal. Unfortunetly for me, my front windshield leaked like a sponge. Even when packed with window-sealer, it was still coming in. So decided to take it down and get a new window installed. It wasnt that much money. Unfortunetly for me again, the whole top of my window frame rusted out. There wasnt much left. Even alittle bit of the sides were gone. Weird. So my truck was down for a few days while I Cut and welded new sheet metal in to replicate a window frame. See the pics.
Also, before the 4 runner jamboree, i wanted some more oil pressure and a new crank. After seeing the condition of the crank and bearing when to took the oil pan off last year, i decided it was in order to be replaced. I picked up a new crank on e-bay for $15 and Federal-Mogels bearings and had them installed. That was a messy, long job but i got it done and now have 50-60 lbs of oil pressure. It a good thing I changed out those bearing too because there were worn down to the copper.
Then in april I had the 4runner jamboree to attend. Everything went well. It took my Co-worker who is also a mechanic and we had a great day crawling over rocks and checking out other people's rigs. The 4runner suffered another bent tie-rod and another love tap by a rock under the passanger side tail light. Again, I have cool pictures.
1/19/2009. Retard me. I wanted to test out some mods I performed on my suspension and drive train, so I attempted to climb a 3.5' tall loading dock at work. Things didnt go as I expected. I did make it to the top, but thats when things got ugly. see for your self. Im missing a windshield, 3 side windows, a passanger side mirror and I gained alittle bit of body work.

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Johnson Valley-2004

toyota engine conversion

3200 visitors Since Feb. 24, 2002